Random, personal, my own views…

This morning I had to stand outside my office waiting for a colleague to arrive, as I have to do from time to time. I don’t mind in the slightest as I can engage in a little ‘people watching’ – for example – the woman who wears animal print coats and the highest heels possible … but who also pulls along a shopping trolley…I often wonder what or whom inspires her dress sense. Then there is the man who walks his daughter to school…..and the daughter is almost as tall as he is… even though she is going to a primary school. And not forgetting the family who all (and I mean all – father, mother and daughter) regularly skip along hand in hand singing nursery songs and suchlike…..quite a spectacle….but who looked serious and miserable as sin on Valentine’s Day…..I’m intrigued to know which one forgot to buy a card….

But while I was waiting this morning, it soon came apparent that there was some kind of cycling event going on at the local school as there seemed to be an awful lot of kids on bikes carefully making their way to class.

I was impressed by the two small lads who cycled along the pavement, wearing their bike helmets, but then got off their bikes to wait and then cross at a pedestrian crossing once the little green man appeared. Much more sensible than the teen who blundered into the road and didn’t seem to register where he was until he finally noticed the car driving towards him. Then there was the Dad who was cycling along, barking out instructions to his two sons cycling ahead of him, who were all being jolly brave amongst the rush hour traffic in their fluorescent jackets and cycling helmets.

There were many other children with their parents and sole young cyclists who were making their way to school….and I was quite impressed with how all the children seemed to be embracing the day. Then there was one ‘Dad’ who just didn’t seem to ‘get it’ in the same way as the others. And it made me laugh.

As the cycling Dad and his two sons sat at the traffic lights waiting for ‘green’, a Jaguar saloon pulled up alongside them with the boot lid up and a bike sticking out of it. Inside was a man driving and a young lad sat in the passenger seat. The driver seemed to look across at the cycling Dad for a few moments as they all waited for the traffic lights to change colour. This was the moment I imagined the penny dropped. ‘Ah……’

Last Saturday I past the Manchester United player, Tom Cleverley, in his black Mercedes G-Class 4×4. I was driving to the shops – he was, I suspect, driving home from training.

The Mercedes G-Class is not a pretty car. Nor is it a cheap car. It is, however, a crap car. What Car magazine rated the Mercedes G-Class with just one star out of a possible of five.

In order to buy a Mercedes G-Class you must be a wealthy person. They start from a shade under £83.000 and the top model costs around £123,000. Hands up if you have bought the wrong car then, Mr [not-so] Cleverley.

So what car should our budding first team ManU player be splashing his cash on? Well if he has to have a 4×4 within a similar price range he could actually save himself a few quid by buying one of the new Range Rovers. I saw one the other day and they are truly huge, but they are also much better on fuel and CO2 emissions than its predecessor.

But perhaps the car Mr Cleverley should be buying is a Dacia Duster. http://www.dacia.co.uk/ Indeed, the intro on the website even says “At Dacia, we make a simple range of cleverly designed vehicles”….so they obviously had him in mind all along…and starting at just £8995 he could save himself a fortune – or buy himself one for each day of the week plus another two for his parents. What Car magazine even rate it as three out of five stars…so much better than the G-Class. Splendid.

I have just finished watching a repeat of Gordon Buchanan’s BBC program about Polar Bears. They are truly majestic beasts and the show is a ‘must watch’ if you haven’t had chance to do so as yet. Now, it could be that it has been jolly cold today and that my house is taking an age to warm up….or it could be a psychological effect of watching all the snow on that program…..but I am typing this leaning against the radiator feeling like a right wimp as I rarely feel the cold at all.

Before I get started on the subject of today’s rant, I thought I would share with you some of the ‘search engine terms’ that have brought visitors to my humble blog. I love to read what people type in…it really can be quite hilarious. I will list the ten most intriguing below:

So, basically, if you have arrived at my little blog whilst in the middle of indulging your odd fetishes with the help of google….then hello and I hope you manage to get help. To everyone else…..read on 😉

Today it was announced that the UK music retailer, HMV, has called in the administrators. This has triggered a wave of nostagia from Twitter users with ‘HMV’ trending for most of the last 24 hours. It is a terribly worrying time for the employees of HMV and my thoughts are with them as they cope with all the uncertainty over the coming weeks.

I did visit HMV before Christmas – for the first time in ages- and it felt quite ‘retro’ to be walking into a shop to buy music or a dvd. And this is, of course, part of the problem. In a digital age HMV remained firmly on the high street when Amazon and other retailers focused on internet sales benefitting from the associated cost savings.

There were many ways in which HMV could have reacted to the shift in trends their markets experienced over recent years….but they appeared to do nothing. In the back of my mind I am thinking of the book ‘Who moved my cheese.’ HMV has been in business for many years, but this does not guarantee a future as Woolworths, Currys or Rover can testify.

The one thing that did surprise me when I visited HMV was the number of younger (sub 30) customers looking through the games, DVDs and CDs. I imagined it would be full of people too scared of the internet to try and use Amazon. And the customers were not all geeks seeking out obscure heavy metal bands either. And this was before Christmas.

This makes me feel even sadder about the demise of HMV. My gut feeling is that there was an opportunity all along to turn the fortunes of this company around – that there was a real chance to do something a bit special with the brand….something a bit innovative…..but did the management have their heads in the sand? Or worst still up their own….ah, hold on, I can see another dodgy search engine search happening. I shall stop there.

On Wednesday I watched the BBC! program ‘War on Britain’s Roads’….and I am glad I did. The aim of the program was to explore the relationship between the motorist and the cyclist on our roads in the UK and, as you may expect, there was footage to show bad behaviour on both sides and interviews with individuals that aimed to reflect a cross section of views.

I used to cycle a fair amount when I was younger but, maybe predictably, when I passed my driving test and bought a car the cycling more or less stopped. I would be the first to admit that the roads of a busy town or city must be an intimidating and dangerous place for a person on a bike these days – but as I described in my blog of 7th September, many inner city cyclists behave in such an angry and ‘f**k you’ kind of manner, that in many cases they seem to make the environment more dangerous for themselves.

I fully agree that motorists need to give bikes more room and on roads there must be careful consideration for those pedalling rather than motoring, remembering their vulnerability at all times but, in my humble opinion, a lot of cyclists need to observe some basics…..decent lights when it’s dark, do not wear dark clothing, observe traffic lights/highway code (you are not permitted to cycle on the pavement and you must obey all traffic signs and lights….for example), and realise that motorists do not want to kill you…… think about whether you are positioning yourself on the road in such a way that you can be seen (avoid mirror blindspots) and do not try to take on large metal objects however angry you are feeling. Cycling is good. Cycling is healthy. But not if it makes you that angry.

The BBC program was sensational in style but it also highlighted an issue ….. and I loved the cycling policeman….and I think the young man with glasses who was interviewed throughout the show might need some media training and some anger management counselling. In my own opinion. But the mpther of the cyclist who was killed by a truck was terribly brave in the way in which approached the company that owned the truck.

The best quote came from the mother of the dead cyclist. ‘It is a competitive space [on the roads] when it needs to be a co-operative space..’ – which sums it all up perfectly. Maybe we need to look to the Netherlands for some tips.

The terribly sad news of the death of Jacintha Saldanha came as a huge shock yesterday. Jacintha was the nurse who took a prank call from an Australian radio station, whose DJ’s were pretending to be The Queen asking after the Duchess of Cambridge as a prank. The assumption has been made in the UK press that the death of Jacintha Saldanha was a suicide – most likely as a consequence of struggling to deal with the pressure and humiliation of being tricked – the fall out of which was reported globally.

I cannot imagine how a lady, whose job and primary concern was caring for people, could have felt when she was tricked in such a public way. It would have been fascinating to have listened in to the meeting that will have taken place at ‘2DayFM’ in Australia when they planned the prank. What consideration was made for the nurses at the hospital? Was the radio station blinded by the hope of high ratings and notoriety if their prank was successful? Did they consider that the Duchess is actually a young woman in the early stages of her first pregnancy who had to stay in hospital ….. was this the wisest subject of a prank??

My initial feeling was anger towards the two Australian DJ’s who did the prank call and who appeared to love the global coverage of the aftermath, but now I feel pity. Their rather pathetic glory at the extent of the initial press coverage has flipped in such dramatic fashion …. that I imagine their own well being must now be a real concern. And whereas I recognise that the two DJ’s (Mel Greig and Michael Christian) would never have imagined this outcome, it does rather illustrate the shallowness of what they were doing. In many ways the most respectful thing to do is for the two DJ’s and the production team/managemen team to be sacked and for the radio station to award damages to the family of Jacintha Saldanha/make a very large charitable donation in her name. The whole episode is sickening and I hope the family of Jacintha Saldanha do feel the overwhelming wave of sympathy towards them.

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It has been many weeks since I last updated my blog, so I felt it was about time to focus and get writing. What is slightly disturbing is that my stats for the blog appear to have maintained a steady rate of hits regardless of the fact I haven’t written anything for about 6 weeks. In fact, yesterday saw one of the highest number of hits I have had for a while. Hmmm. So ‘hello’ to the good people of India, Portugal, Belgium, Chile, Ethiopia and Australia who, along with some fine UK citizens, decided to read my ramblings.

Yesterday I went to see the latest James Bond film, ‘Skyfall.’ I had been meaning to go and see it for sometime, but finally got round to going to the cinema yesterday afternoon. http://youtu.be/6kw1UVovByw

What I must say first of all is that if you manage to watch the film, as I did, behind an elderly couple where she is a bit deaf …. then that will add to the enjoyment of the film no end. Towards the beginning of the film, Bond follows a Baddie to a skyscraper where an assassination is about to take place. In the process of gaining access to the building the Baddie shoots a couple of security guards. Just after the first shooting, the old bird in front said (rather loudly) ‘Oh dear…’ which kind of set the tone for the afternoon.

My parents watched the film a week before I did and my Mum couldn’t help but let slip a couple of key plot lines and also vented her frustrations at the ending. ‘It did go on a bit. I wanted to go and kill him myself. He just refused to die. I could have killed him much quicker…’ At the time I thought my Dad’s look of horror was due to the declaration that his wife of 49 years wanted to kill a man, but it was, with hindsight, a look of horror that Mum was going to blurt out the surprise ending to the film. Thankfully she didn’t. And nor have I 😉

The film is quite long, but I have to say I was enjoying it so much it didn’t feel like 2.25hrs at all. As I am a bit of a car freak, I was loving the Audis, the Jags, the Land Rovers and…..the Aston. I particularly loved the part of the film where he goes to get his DB5 from the garage – and the reaction of the audience in the cinema. A comforting ‘ahhhh.’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pngh_NFY0qg

The stunts are one of the major draws of a Bond film as they do not use CGi as seems to be the norm these days. And spectacular they were. I understand they got through 15 Audi A5’s when they were filming the opening (I just wish I was given one – lovely cars) The use of the helicopter in the final few scenes was brilliant too. http://youtu.be/FTVZ2WNcudU

I have to say that Mr Craig is the best Bond by far and the introduction of a new ‘Q’ works well (Ben Whishaw- from BBC’s ‘The Hour’), Dame Judi is an excellent ‘M’ – the Church of England could do well to make note – see, you can put a woman in charge…

I have not seen a Bond film at the cinema before, but I would go and watch this one again given half the chance. And the DVD will be duly purchased in due course. As would an Audi A5 Coupe and a Jaguar XJ. But maybe after the lottery win.

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Now, I have been known to voice my opinion before about Radio and TV presenters and it is time for my latest rant, so prepare yourself. This evening on my way home from work I listened to BBC Radio One. Greg James was doing his Drivetime show. This is the second time I have caught his show recently – the last time was Thursday just gone – and both times I happened to listen about 5/5.30pm.

Now I like Greg James – he seems a nice chap – but his show has got me rather annoyed. On both occasions he was banging on about X Factor….he used the theme music…he used audio clips from the show…he interviewed the presenters…for what seemed to be about 30mins each time. I can only assume he does this every day at this time. And I have to ask myself the question – WHY?

Given the X Factor is ITV’s flagship entertainment show and Cowell’s production company seems to be enjoying the usual high ratings, is it necessary for one of the top BBC Radio stations to dedicate so much peak air time (at BBC license payer’s expense) to further promote the show? It strikes me as lazy on behalf of the Drivetime production staff that they are padding out their show by grabbing onto the coat tails of X Factor. Very poor.

But while I am on the subject of Radio One, I have to admit I have been enjoying Nick Grimshaw in the mornings……so much better than Chris Moyles.

Moyles had become rather ‘long in the tooth’ and should have finished much sooner. I now have a dilemma – whether to listen to Chris Evans or Nick Grimshaw in the morning. Oh decisions, decisions….

I am ashamed to say it has been about 3 weeks since my last blog post, which is far too long. If I am being honest, this has been down to motivational issues along with the need to snuggle up, now the dark nights are here, and try to hibernate. This plan has largely failed due to the need to work, do chores and the temptations of tv.

I have a new tv, incidentally, which is a lovely LED flat screen which was delivered yesterday. Before you plan to rob my house, I might add that it isn’t a huge 50 inch 3D whizz-bang effort that is likely to fund any illegal habits you may have – just a modestly priced Toshiba that serves my needs more than adequately.

The TV was delivered in a large dark green van with ‘John Lewis’ written in white down the sides, which is nice for my neighbours to observe. What – for me – summed up how technology moves on was the way in which the younger delivery driver struggled to carry out the huge 28 inch older tv …. and how the 2nd delivery man walked in with my bigger screened 32 inch flat screen tv carried in one hand. Sadly they were very efficient in delivering the television so the lovely big green van was only outside for 10 minutes. Maybe even less than that.

I then set about unpacking the tv and wiring it up, etc. I had bought an HDMi cable some time ago but failed to check the back of my other appliances to see is they had the sockets to support this. They don’t. So I decided to nip out and buy a blue-ray DVD player continue the updating of my tech. Again, don’t feel as though you need to rob my house….one can buy a reasonable blue-ray DVD player quite cheaply now……so I went to visit Mr J Lewis.

Now I have to admit this was a Saturday afternoon and this is traditionally a busy shopping day … but the place was heaving. I read the papers – we are all supposed to be skint and in the middle of a very long recession!! In order to ask about and buy a DVD player I was assigned a pager by a very nice bearded chap and assured that I would be paged within 5 minutes….10 minutes tops…..and when I returned to the desk there would then be a member of staff waiting to help me. I was in no hurry and quietly amused by this system…..and it meant I could go and browse the other tech. After 5 minutes my pocket buzzed and there, at the desk, was a polite young chap waiting to deal with my requests.

On my way home, having bought the DVD player, I wondered whether the number of people in the John Lewis store was a sign of people finally spending some money…or a sign of the success of John Lewis …… or a bit of both. The tv was ordered and delivery arranged online. No hassle. No fuss. I even had to re-arrange the delivery time…..I did this via e-mail and confirmation of the new delivery time was made over the phone within two hours of the e-mail being sent…..on a Sunday!!! The store I visited was very busy – but they had systems in place to deal with it. The staff were polite, attentive and helpful.

But finally I have to say that, since I told people I was looking for a new television, I have never had so many ‘size’ discussions with innuendo aplenty. But despite what I have been advised, I have not spent more on a 40+inch tv – I have stuck to my guns and bought a 32 inch. I do not care if that makes mine much smaller than yours. For my purposes, 32 inches is more than enough. I thank you 😉